i8 A BOOK OF MORTALS 



naturally, grown out of all outward resemblance to the fat 

 little podge of a puppy which had left us thirteen months 

 before. 



Constancy again is by no means uncommon even amongst 

 the dogs and cats who are very generally taken by humanity 

 as types of the corresponding vice. 



This same dachshund, bereaved of an Aberdeenshire 

 terrier whom he had elected — I grieve to say — as the 

 mother of all his children, resolutely refused for a long time 

 to interest himself in any one else, and when at last he 

 yielded to persuasion, never gave to his legal wife the devo- 

 tion and friendship he had given to the companion of his 

 own choice. 



But beyond sexual morality, beyond fatherly affection, 

 beyond even constancy there is still something further in 

 human marriage. 



Is this something to be found amongst the beasts that 

 perish ? 



Who can tell ? But something there is which comes 

 very close to it. 



One February morning when a light coating of snow 

 lay on the world outside, a wren found its way into the 

 conservatory. 



The arums and the cinerarias had been giving trouble 

 with green fly, so the little intruder was welcomed. The 

 more so because, greatly to our surprise and delight, after a 

 day's imprisonment he began to sing. 



At first he flitted restlessly from place to place, the paper 

 white narcissus scarcely bending with his weight, the 

 feathery fronds of the maidenhair ferns concealing him 

 utterly. But seen or unseen he literally poured himself out 



